Nathan Lukes

Nathan Lukes

30-Year-Old OutfielderOF
Toronto Blue Jays
2025 Fantasy Outlook
"Lukes hits nukes" is a marketing campaign waiting to happen. Unfortunately, the skill set is not there, as there is not much pop in his bat, and given that he is now 30 years old, it is unlikely anything changes moving forward. Lukes has the skills to play all three outfield spots and has made a name for himself in Triple-A as a high-contact hitter with good plate discipline, but that skill set has not translated into any major league regular playing time. Lukes stands a good chance of making the roster out of camp should Daulton Varsho's recovery from shoulder surgery take longer than expected, but there simply is not much here to get excited about unless you are in a deep AL Only OBP league looking for bench depth. Read Past Outlooks
RANKS
Rest of Season
From Preseason
#361
ADP
$Signed a one-year contract with the Blue Jays in March of 2025.
Connects for first homer in loss
OFToronto Blue Jays
April 22, 2025
Lukes went 1-for-3 with a solo home run in Tuesday's loss to Houston.
ANALYSIS
It was the first homer of the campaign by Lukes, who took Astros right-hander Ronel Blanco deep in the third inning. While Lukes does have four walks through his first 37 plate appearances of the year, he's batting just .200 with one double, five RBI and seven runs scored in 15 games. With Daulton Varsho (shoulder) nearing a return to Toronto's outfield, it's quite possible Lukes will be the odd man out when a corresponding move needs to be made in order to activate the former from the injured list.
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Batting Stats
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2025
2024
2023
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2024 MLB Game Log
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Batting Order Slot Breakdown
vs Right-Handed Pitchers
vs RHP
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
#7
#8
#9
5
5
vs Left-Handed Pitchers
vs LHP
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
#7
#8
#9
Left/Right Batting Splits
Since 2023
 
 
+71%
OPS vs RHP
2025
 
 
-100%
OPS vs RHP
2024
 
 
+63%
OPS vs RHP
2023
 
 
+236%
OPS vs RHP
OPS PA R HR RBI SB AVG OBP SLG
Since 2023vs Left .451 19 3 0 0 1 .125 .263 .188
Since 2023vs Right .773 140 21 2 17 0 .276 .350 .422
2025vs Left .000 0 1 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000
2025vs Right .639 37 6 1 5 0 .200 .306 .333
2024vs Left .536 14 1 0 0 1 .167 .286 .250
2024vs Right .871 77 12 1 10 0 .328 .387 .484
2023vs Left .200 5 1 0 0 0 .000 .200 .000
2023vs Right .671 26 3 0 2 0 .227 .308 .364
More Splits View More Split Stats
Minor League Splits View Minor League Split Stats
Home/Away Batting Splits
Since 2023
 
 
+44%
OPS on Road
2025
 
 
+130%
OPS on Road
2024
 
 
+19%
OPS on Road
2023
 
 
+133%
OPS on Road
OPS PA R HR RBI SB AVG OBP SLG
Since 2023Home .592 75 12 1 9 1 .197 .264 .328
Since 2023Away .855 84 12 1 8 0 .310 .405 .451
2025Home .378 18 4 0 3 0 .143 .235 .143
2025Away .868 19 3 1 2 0 .250 .368 .500
2024Home .745 44 7 1 5 1 .243 .286 .459
2024Away .883 47 6 0 5 0 .359 .447 .436
2023Home .331 13 1 0 1 0 .100 .231 .100
2023Away .771 18 3 0 1 0 .250 .333 .438
More Splits View More Split Stats
Stat Review
How does Nathan Lukes compare to other hitters?
This section compares his stats with all batting seasons from the previous three seasons (minimum 400 plate appearances)*. The bar represents the player's percentile rank. For example, if the bar is halfway across, then the player falls into the 50th percentile for that stat and it would be considered average.

* Exit Velocity and Barrels/PA % are benchmarked against 2019 data (min 400 PA) and Hard Hit Rate is benchmarked against last season's data (min 400 PA). See here for more exit velocity/barrels stats plus an explanation of current limitations with that data set.
  • BB/K
    Walk to strikeout ratio
  • BB Rate
    The percentage of plate appearances resulting in a walk.
  • K Rate
    The percentage of plate appearances resulting in a strikeout.
  • BABIP
    Batting average on balls in play. Measures how many of a batter’s balls in play go for hits.
  • ISO
    Isolated Power. Slugging percentage minus batting average. A computation used to measure a batter's raw power.
  • AVG
    Batting average. Hits divided by at bats.
  • OBP
    On Base Percentage. A measure of how often a batters reaches base. Roughly equal to number of times on base divided by plate appearances.
  • SLG
    Slugging Percentage. A measure of the batting productivity of a hitter. It is calculated as total bases divided by at bats.
  • OPS
    On base plus slugging. THe sum of a batter's on-base percentage and slugging percentage.
  • wOBA
    Weighted on-base average. Measures a player's overall offensive contributions per plate appearance. wOBA combines all the different aspects of hitting into one metric, weighting each of them in proportion to their actual run value.
  • Exit Velocity
    The speed of the baseball as it comes off the bat, immediately after a batter makes contact.
  • Hard Hit Rate
    A measure of contact quality from Sports Info Solutions. This stat explains what percentage of batted balls were hit hard vs. medium or soft.
  • Barrels/PA
    The percentage of plate appearances where a batter had a batted ball classified as a Barrel. A Barrel is a batted ball with similar exit velocity and launch angle to past ones that led to a minimum .500 batting average and 1.500 slugging percentage.
  • Expected BA
    Expected Batting Average.
  • Expected SLG
    Expected Slugging Percentage.
  • Sprint Speed
    The speed of a runner from home to first, in feet per second.
  • Ground Ball %
    The percentage of balls put in play that are on the ground.
  • Line Drive %
    The percentage of balls put in play that are line drives.
  • Fly Ball %
    The percentage of balls put in play that are fly balls.
BB/K
0.80
 
BB Rate
10.8%
 
K Rate
13.5%
 
BABIP
.200
 
ISO
.133
 
AVG
.200
 
OBP
.306
 
SLG
.333
 
OPS
.639
 
wOBA
.289
 
Exit Velocity
81.9 mph
 
Hard Hit Rate
22.2%
 
Barrels/PA
0.0%
 
Expected BA
.305
 
Expected SLG
.353
 
Sprint Speed
24.2 ft/sec
 
Ground Ball %
42.3%
 
Line Drive %
30.8%
 
Fly Ball %
26.9%
 
Advanced Batting Stats
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Additional Stats
Games By Position
Defensive Stats
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Batted Ball Stats
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Stats Vs Upcoming Pitchers
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Recent RotoWire Articles Featuring Nathan Lukes See More
AL FAAB Factor: Waiver Pickups of the Week
4 days ago
A wave of top prospects joins the American League free-agent pool this week, including the Minnesota Twins' Luke Keaschall.
Weekly Hitter Rankings: It's a Marathon
5 days ago
The Giants' offense should benefit from seven home games while Todd Zola also discusses similar favorable situations for a couple other clubs.
Lineup Lowdown: American League
9 days ago
Catch up with all the latest developments in playing time around the American League, including Ben Rice's expanded role for the Yankees.
AL FAAB Factor: Waiver Pickups of the Week
25 days ago
The American League free-agent pool features a lot of targets after the first full weekend of the season including top Red Sox prospect Kristian Campbell, who looks like he's in Boston to stay.
Spring Training Job Battles: Final AL Update
30 days ago
Catch up on the players who won jobs in the final days of camp around the American League, including Cam Smith of the Astros.
Past Fantasy Outlooks
2024
2023
Lukes made his major league debut in 2023, slashing .192/.290./.308 across 31 plate appearances with the Blue Jays. Lukes did impress in his age 28 season at Triple-A across 222 plate appearances hitting .366/.423/.530 with five home runs and three stolen bases. Entering his age 29 season, the corner outfielder is likely destined for a return to Triple-A in 2024 after the signings of Kevin Kiermaier and Isiah Kiner-Falefa pushed him further down the depth chart. If Lukes does make a return to the majors in the new campaign it'll likely be as a depth option off the bench.
Lukes was signed by Toronto as a minor-league free agent in November 2021 and was immediately added to the 40-man roster, and he spent his first season in the organization at Triple-A Buffalo. He played in 111 games during 2022 and had a .285/.361/.425 slash line with 11 home runs and 20 stolen bases, with the long balls and steals representing career highs. The departure of Teoscar Hernandez opens up some reps in the outfield (as well as designated hitter) for the Blue Jays, which should increase the chances of Lukes making his MLB debut in 2023. Still, he doesn't exactly have a clear path to a regular role.
More Fantasy News
Reinstated from paternity list
OFToronto Blue Jays
April 18, 2025
The Blue Jays reinstated Lukes from the paternity list Friday.
ANALYSIS
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Placed on paternity list
OFToronto Blue Jays
Personal
April 15, 2025
The Blue Jays placed Lukes on the paternity list Tuesday.
ANALYSIS
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Starting in center field
OFToronto Blue Jays
March 28, 2025
Lukes is starting in center field and batting eighth in Friday's game against the Orioles.
ANALYSIS
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Likely to have bench spot
OFToronto Blue Jays
March 22, 2025
Lukes' chances of breaking camp with a bench spot on the Blue Jays' Opening Day roster have improved with Daulton Varsho (shoulder) set to begin the season on the injured list, Keegan Matheson of MLB.com reports.
ANALYSIS
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Hits first career homer in loss
OFToronto Blue Jays
September 28, 2024
Lukes went 1-for-4 with a solo home run in Saturday's 8-1 loss to the Marlins.
ANALYSIS
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Latest Fantasy Rumors
Set to join big club?
OFToronto Blue Jays
May 2, 2024
Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca reports that Lukes is slated to travel to Washington to join up with the Blue Jays on Thursday.
ANALYSIS
Lukes did not make the Blue Jays' Opening Day roster despite going 18-for-40 with four doubles, one triple and two steals in spring training. He's played in 20 games with Triple-A Buffalo this season, slashing .284/.348/.432 with 13 runs, three home runs and 13 RBI over 89 plate appearances. Lukes would give Toronto a left-handed bat who can cover the entire outfield, which could be needed if Kevin Kiermaier remains on the shelf past his 10-day IL window due to left hip flexor inflammation.
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